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This Excel model encodes the analytical capability required to undertake an application of the adapted National Infrastructure Systems Modelling (NISMOD) capability, which has been developed by the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) - a UK based research consortium, led by the University of Oxford. Through a partnership between the United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS) and the ITRC, an initial national infrastructure assessment for Curaçao, known as Evidence-Based Infrastrastucture Assessment, has been performed. The focus of this model lies on one priority sector for the SIDS Curaçao: 'Waste Management'.

We employ qualitative content analysis on 29 survey responses from local officials around Japan’s 200 largest mega-solar plants constructed since 2012. Japan’s energy market has seen the siting and construction of over 2800 new mega-solar power plants since the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff policy in 2012. While scholars have highlighted the potential for community-engaged renewable power development with social benefits for local residents, many major mega-solar projects have instead resulted from industry-led initiatives in locations, largely avoiding community engagement. In this study, we draw from distributive energy justice perspectives to analyze social equity impacts of the mega-solar siting process. In our paper, we contextualize results through 18 interviews with relevant actors in six case studies. We find that given the existence of the Feed-in Tariff and sufficient solar irradiation, the availability of underutilized land decreases community bargaining power compared to historical power plant siting agreements. This results in primarily land leasing benefits and municipal tax revenue with minimal additional social impacts, such as employment. In our paper, we outline a model of causation for mega-solar social equity impacts, Japanese policy implications, and directions for future quantitative research.

Abstract With drastic fossil fuel depletion and environmental deterioration concerns, a move towards a more sustainable bioenergy-based economy is essential. Lately, the application of microwave (MW) irradiation for waste processing has been attracting interest globally. MW-assisted heating possesses several advantages such as the provision of high microwave energy into dielectric materials with deeper penetration for internal heat generation, showing beneficial features in improving the heating rate and reducing the reaction time. Consequently, the most recent literature regarding the applications of MW-assisted heating for biomass pretreatment as well as biofuel and bioenergy production was reviewed and consolidated in this study. An impressive increase in the product yield and improvement of the product properties are reported, with the use of MW-assisted heating in several conversion routes to produce biofuels. Despite being a promising technology for biofuel production, some major fundamental data of MW-assisted heating have not been comprehensively identified. Therefore, the feasibility of this technology for large-scale implementation is still subpar. Understanding the interaction between the feedstock and the microwave electromagnetic field, and the optimization of several operational and mechanical parameters are the two main keystones that would propel the industrialization of MW heating in the near future. This provides key insights leading to increased feasibility and more advanced application of MW heating.

Achievement of sustainable development in light of ongoing climate change and biodiversity pressures benefits from the deployment of innovations that foster engagement and uptake across all levels, mobilises finance flows commencement to the scale of the challenge, and enables the dissemination of transition solutions that support the low carbon economy. This research investigates the relationship between the legal architecture of market mechanisms under international law and the role of private actors, and how this contributes to sustainable development. Through an exploration of how market mechanisms under the climate change and biodiversity regimes have achieved environmentally sound outcomes, been advanced in sectoral approaches, and facilitated via bilateral and multilateral trade and investment relationships, important insights are identified regarding the composition of effective law and governance architectural approaches. Leveraging experiences derived from treaty practice viewed through an interactional account of international law, this assessment elucidates the important role played by alignment of legal regimes, robust transparency measures, and complementary schemes such as stakeholder-endorsed certifications in buttressing the established measures to ensure sustainable development outcomes and contributes to understanding the role of private actors in the operationalisation of environmental agreements. Research findings suggest it is the interaction of norms across the international legal architecture, informed by relationships within and across relevant treaty systems and the general corpus of international law, and actualised through engagement with private actors as a component of market mechanisms that provides the opportunity for congruence of practice, forging of shared understandings, and normative internalisation and ownership among communities of practice that stimulates both innovative solutions and ambitious action.

The dataset is composed of the final energy consumption by sector (industry, passenger transport, freight transport, residential, services, and agriculture) and sub-sector/end-use (e.g., chemical industry, cars, truck and light vehicles, space heating, etc.) of Finland. In addition, data regarding passengers and goods traffic, the number of households, the stock of dwellings permanently occupied, the floor area of dwellings, and CO2 emissions are collected. The primary data source is the Odyssee database. The Odyssee data are complemented with data regarding the value added and energy dependence of Finland taken from the World Bank and Eurostat database, respectively. The data of Finland cover the period from 2005 to 2015.

This study provides the first comprehensive overview of the sustainability performance of the hotel sector in the Himalayan region: Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone, using both environmental, economic, and technical criteria. In particular, the performance of 45 buildings in this region were measured and quantified in terms of life cycle based carbon footprint, life cycle costs, heat loss rate, number of guests, energy consumption, and area. Buildings were classified into three types: traditional, semi-modern and modern. The statistical analysis included testing for significant differences between such categories by means of ANOVA, and determination of the correlation between the same parameters. Results show a significant difference between the buildings’ total carbon footprint and operation stage carbon footprint while, there is no significant difference between the buildings’ life cycle costs. Traditional buildings have on average the largest carbon footprint and life-cycle cost over the typical building lifespan of 50 years of building lifespan. The ANOVA tests highlight how heat loss rate, size of the building and number of tourists in the hotels are significantly different across the building types. A strong positive correlation is observed between environmental impact, economic impact and energy consumption for the household activities, and a negative correlation with the number of guests and building size. By considering several buildings, this study allows to draw new and more general conclusions about effective sustainability strategies in the whole hotel sector in the Himalayan region. In particular, it shows that reducing impacts in the operation stage should be highly prioritized, focusing on reducing energy consumption and heat loss and shifting to the use of renewable energy sources.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is recognized as an effective practice to support circular economy and sustainable development because it is able to enhance the technical efficiency of production processes, provided IS relationships among companies remain active over the long period. However, although it has been established that IS relationships can be vulnerable to disruptive events that reduce the willingness of companies to cooperate in IS synergies, to date few contributions to the literature focus attention on the events which lead firms to interrupt IS synergies. This paper contributes to the existing literature firstly by highlighting the disruptive events affecting the willingness of companies to cooperate in IS synergies and their causes, and secondly by developing an analytical model to assess the impact of each disruption on physical and monetary flows created among companies by the IS relationship. Specifically, an enterprise input-output (EIO) model is proposed, aimed at mapping the physical and monetary flows resulting from IS synergies among companies. Through this model, disruptive events can be modeled and their impact on the above-mentioned flows can be assessed. A numerical case example illustrates how the model works and how company managers and IS facilitators could use it to evaluate to what degree their current IS relationships may be vulnerable to perturbations. The model could therefore facilitate the design of adequate countermeasures and contribute to the development of perturbation resilient IS relationships. Furthermore, policymakers could adopt the model when designing policy actions to support IS practice.

To meet the increasing demand for sustainable products, one can look to nature to scout new functional materials. For instance, the most brilliant and striking colours in plants are obtained using cellulose nanofibrils organised in helicoidal architectures. Interestingly, similar helicoidal architectures with analogous optical response can be obtained in vitro by self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). CNCs are rod-like colloids capable of arranging into a liquid crystalline phase above a critical concentration in suspension. So far, the process that governs the self-assembly of CNCs into photonic structures was studied only at small scale. This neglects the limitations and challenges posed by large-scale and continuous processes which are prevalent in industrial contexts. In this thesis, I demonstrate how the self-assembly of CNCs can be precisely controlled to produce meters-long films using a roll-to-roll (R2R) equipment. Starting with commercially available material, the preparation of CNC suspension was optimised for R2R deposition to produce films with vibrant photonic colour across the visible range. Particularly, I discuss how the suspension properties, the casting parameters and drying time relate to the optical properties of the produced films. To validate the use of such materials for pigment preparation, I develop a protocol to produce a series of coloured microparticles from R2R-cast CNC films. The optical properties of the CNC microparticles were then assessed in various environment and finally benchmarked against other commercial effect pigments and glitters.

OECD DAC data on climate change-related development assistance from 11 donor countries that has been collapsed to a donor-year level.